


it's the fear that will follow you

by Willow_bird



Series: on the tip of my tongue (say something) [6]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: ASL, Attempted Sexual Assault, F/M, Homophobic Language, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, POV Katelyn (All For The Game), Protective Aaron Minyard, Protective Andrew Minyard, Protective Neil Josten, Realistic (frightening) Situation, Sign Language, Soft Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard, physical assault
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:15:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25024534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Willow_bird/pseuds/Willow_bird
Summary: Katelyn has an unwanted admirer and it's causingproblems. When Neil and Andrew are the ones to come to her rescue, they all learn a little bit more about each other and...bondingensues?
Relationships: Aaron Minyard & Andrew Minyard, Katelyn & Andrew Minyard, Katelyn/Aaron Minyard, Neil Josten & Katelyn, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Series: on the tip of my tongue (say something) [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1782130
Comments: 58
Kudos: 597





	it's the fear that will follow you

**Author's Note:**

> Ugh, I'm so bad at summaries. Legit. I apologize, because the summary makes this sound really lighthearted and it's actually really... not? So - the first half of this was only written so that I could write the second half. I don't even know what to call this. Is it fluffy? Kinda? Is it unnecessary drama? Definitely. Some parts of it are also pretty dark, especially in the last, like, third. I also absolutely hashed this out in one sitting and now I HAVE to go to bed. I should have been asleep like two hours ago. 
> 
> That being said!! I HOPE YOU ENJOY!
> 
> Warnings for violence and physical assault. I think there's some language down there too. The situation Katelyn gets into is very realistic and may be triggering to some readers. See notes at the end for spoilers. Rated mature for violence and potentially triggering situations.

The first time Stephen Hanks asked her out, Katelyn politely turned him down. The second time, she politely turned him down _again_ and told him that while she was happy to continue tutoring him in Biology, she wasn’t interested in him and she would appreciate it if he’d let it drop. For a while, Katelyn really thought he was actually going to let it go. 

When Stephen showed up to their weekly tutoring session the Wednesday before Halloween with a bouquet of flowers, she knew she’d underestimated his persistence and she was beginning to get annoyed. It had been flattering the first time, and a bit sad the second - but this was too much. 

“Hello Stephen,” she greeted casually as she arranged her materials on the table - hoping that maybe he just had the flowers with him so that he could ask someone else out _after_ their tutoring session. Or maybe he was visiting a friend in the hospital. Or maybe it was his mom’s birthday. _Anything_ other than what it looked like.

It was what it looked like.

“Hey Katelyn.” He grinned at her, the expression bright and confident. “I think I went about this wrong before.”

Katelyn held up a hand to stop him before he could get any further. She tried to keep her tone gentle but she could hear the annoyance slipping through. “Stephen, stop. Please. I already told you no. This has to stop.”

Well, that wiped the confidence right off his face. All traces of humor or pleasantness was gone, too. For just a moment, Katelyn felt a quick little jolt of fear that she immediately mentally talked herself down from. Stephen was a nice guy. Sure he was persistent but he’d never shown evidence of being violent or anything like that. She knew those things happened, of course, but not in a university library in the middle of the day, right? They happened in bars, when guys who were already predisposed to be assholes already had a couple of drinks in them. Or when girls didn’t realize the kind of guy their friend actually was and they got weirdly possessive and then freaked out about being ‘friendzoned’ or something. She’d read the internet stories, she’d heard the accounts of friends-of-friends, but something like that wasn’t going to happen to _her_ , here, now. No way. 

“Are you serious?” he asked, his arm dropping and the flowers hanging forlornly near his knee. The bouquet was a modest mix of blue, white, and purple flowers - her favorite colors in what was really an adorable little arrangement. If Aaron or one of her friends had gotten it for her she’d be over the moon - but context really was everything. 

“I was serious the first two times I said no, Stephen,” Katelyn said, firmly but (she hoped) not unkindly. She didn’t want to be cruel, but she also didn’t want to sound apologetic. She didn’t want to give him any possible in to think that maybe it just wasn’t the right time or the right place or the right flowers. 

An angry, bitter acidity burned in her stomach when she realized how carefully she was treading, how much thought she was putting into the tone of her voice and the exact choice of her words and the exact set of her face so that she couldn’t be perceived even _remotely_ as being possibly interested so that he wouldn’t accuse her of leading him on, so that he would let this drop, and also so that it wouldn’t go the other way and he wouldn’t suddenly get angry with her for being some kind of a bitch. 

This was bullshit. No was no, and she shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to try and make herself understood while also tiptoeing around _his_ feelings. She was angry with herself for doing so, and she was angry with _him_ and suddenly every other two-legged, mouth-breathing, entitled _male_ that had made it so that it had been her _instinct_ to let him down with such ridiculous care even though nothing bad had ever happened to her personally for turning down a guy. 

Before Stephen could say what she was sure was a very heartfelt declaration and plea for a chance, Katelyn stood up and started roughly shoving her things back into her bag. 

“Whoa, hey, Katelyn. What’s--” He reached out to touch her, but before he made contact he stopped short and there was a strong, scarred hand gripping his wrist so tightly the knuckles were white and Stephen gasped. The hand released him when he jerked away, but by then there was a two-person barrier between her and her unwanted admirer. Katelyn blinked in astonishment as she looked between Neil and Andrew, wondering where the hell they’d come from and _why_ they were there at all. 

“What the fuck? Who the hell are _you?_ ” Stephen was confused and indignant, but Katelyn didn’t think she’d imagined the fine thread of violence under his words as well. Neither Neil nor Andrew were taller than her, so it was easy for her to look past them to see the clench of Stephen’s jaw and the way his fists clenched. Something cold and slimy rolled around in her stomach this time and she took half a step back before realizing she’d done it. Both Andrew and Neil glanced to her, then at each other. The look lasted for only an instant, but then they moved in perfect synchrony as if they’d just decided something. Neil turned away from Stephen and toward her, moving to help her gather her things. Andrew stepped closer to Stephen and… were those _knives!?_

Katelyn opened her mouth to protest, but Neil touched her hand and shook his head. When she looked at him he looked almost _amused_ and that so did not fit the situation it kinda knocked her back off her fear a bit. 

“No means no,” Andrew was saying coldly, and there was a tight sound of mixed panic and rage that had Katelyn glancing back over to the other two men - but she couldn’t see where Andrew’s knife was. She suspected that it was pressed against something tender, though, by the wide look in Stephen’s eyes - though she was more disturbed by her own lack of horror than she was at the actual idea of Andrew Minyard threatening another man with a knife. A tiny part of her might even be pleased, but she’d leave that bit of introspection for later. 

“Jesus-fucking-Christ I was just trying to ask her out on a date!”

“And she said no. Now, scurry off - before I decide to take away your unimaginative source of motivation.” Andrew’s arm flexed slightly and Stephen sucked in a sharp breath, going up onto his toes. 

“Fuck fuck fuck, fine! Leaving! Jesus Christ!” Stephen lifted his hands in wary surrender and glanced quickly to Katelyn. The moment Andrew’s hand pulled away he turned and was out of the library before Katelyn could fully process the whole of what had just happened. 

Something touched her hand and she jumped a little bit, but it was only Neil handing her her bag. Andrew only turned to join them once Stephen had cleared the building, his knife nowhere to be seen and his expression so excruciatingly bored that he might as well have just been listening to a four-hour seminar on the depreciation of washing machines. 

Katelyn took her bag back and slung it over her shoulder, looking between the two boys. With the adrenaline fading, she was now caught between embarrassment and befuddlement. “Th-thanks,” she stammered out, then cleared her throat and made herself stand up straighter. “Really. Thank you. Um, you didn’t have to - but I appreciate… that.”

Neil shrugged. “No problem,” he said, his posture relaxed and casual, but the tilt of his head curious. He wasn’t going to ask her, she realized after a moment. She was sure he was wondering what the hell that was all about - why some guy was trying to ask her out so persistently when she already had a boyfriend - but he wasn’t going to ask, and there was no judgment in his eyes either. When she looked at Andrew she saw a similar absence, even though it was his brother she was dating. Of course, with Andrew it was really impossible to tell what he was actually thinking so that blank stare could have meant ‘wow you’re a slut, aren’t you?’ as much as it might mean ‘that guy was a dick and this was in no way Katelyn’s fault’ or - and she supposed this was actually most likely - ‘this place blows, I want ice cream’. 

“Anyway, we were just here to grab a few books.” Neil nodded to a table nearby that had an arrangement of books about American Sign Language strewn across it. Katelyn hadn’t noticed them when she’d come in - though she supposed they might have been away from the table and were returning to it when Stephen decided to hound her. “You gonna be alright?”

“Hm?” She snapped her attention back to Neil and offered him a smile. “Yeah. I’m fine. He just… couldn’t take a hint I guess.”

“You were not hinting.” Andrew hadn’t actually spoken to her since the day (in this very library, actually) where he’d pushed her down and more or less threatened her in some bizarre hazing ritual of approval for her to date his brother, so she was wary and unsure why he was doing it now - even with his and Neil’s unexpected defense. 

“What?”

“You said ‘no’. That was not a ‘hint’. Sounded like it wasn’t the first time, either.” He studied her more intently, then, and shift in his expression was so subtle from his usual affectation of bored disinterest that she almost missed it. 

“Ah, yeah. I mean, no - it wasn’t. He asked me out twice before, and I told him no - that I wasn’t interested.”

“Does he know you’re dating Aaron?” Andrew asked, and his tone was deceptively casual. Ah - there it was.

Katelyn frowned, shifting her bag on her shoulder. “Does it matter if he does?” At this point, she was vividly aware that standing her ground against Andrew Minyard was probably one of the bravest (and stupidest) things she’d ever done. He’d already threatened her before, he had never hidden his disdain for her, and yeah, so he’d just stepped in and chased off Stephen - but she had no idea _why_ he had done it. He still had knives on him, and she was under no illusion that he wouldn’t use them on her if he suddenly decided it would be worth the annoyance of the confrontation itself. 

But Andrew did not pull his knives on her. He studied her for so long that Katelyn felt the urge to fidget - but if nothing else, Katelyn liked to see her commitments through so she held her ground and waited him out. 

Finally, after what was very possibly a full five minutes, Andrew said, “No, it doesn’t.” Then he looked to Neil before turning and walking back toward their table like the whole interaction had never happened. 

Katelyn stared after him dumbly until Neil’s soft chuckle pulled her out of her stupor to look at him. The amusement was back on his face (or maybe it had never left). Whatever look she was giving him made his smile grow and the starting striker rubbed the back of his neck as he looked from her to his boyfriend and back again. “I think he’s starting to like you.”

Now Katelyn _knew_ that she was looking at Neil as if he’d just grown a third head - because honestly, a third head would be far less bonkers that the word salad that had just come out of his mouth. _Andrew???? Like?? Her!???! Whaaaaaat????_

Neil let out a laugh, and the sound was so bright and warm she was beginning to wonder if she’d accidentally stepped into some kind of mirror dimension. Not that Neil was as cold and stony as his murder-boyfriend, but the guy was still pretty closed off around most people. When she saw him with the other Foxes he could go from seeming like a downright normal college kid, messing around with his friends and having a good time, to shutting down when too many unknown entities tried to engage with him. 

With sudden clarity, Katelyn realized that Neil must feel pretty comfortable around her to be that relaxed with her, to laugh like that and be calmly amused as Andrew wielded knives at her unwanted suitor. 

( _Oh, skies, this was her life now wasn’t it? Sentences like that happened in her life now._ )

A warm flush of gratitude and tenderness welled in her chest and she found herself laughing along with him, her own toned more with incredulity than anything else, but the mood was officially lifted. 

“So you’re studying sign language?” she asked around a smile, allowing her curiosity to guide her more comfortably than she would have before the revelation. 

Neil seemed to hesitate a moment before nodding. “Yeah, we’ve been learning it together for a few months now. We’re taking an online course, but it helps to look through books too when we want to expand on certain stuff.”

“If you ever need any help, or want someone else to practice with, let me know.”

“You know ASL?” Neil’s surprise was painted across his face and inflected his tone, his blue eyes (how had she never actually noticed how _blue_ his eyes were) wide and his mouth slightly gaped. She didn’t blame him for it either - unless you were a part of the deaf and hard of hearing community or were close to someone who was most people would never even consider learning it. Katelyn probably wouldn’t have thought of studying it herself if she hadn’t been raised bilingual. 

She lifted her hands and spoke while she signed, “My sister and mom are deaf. I’ve been fluent my whole life. Honestly, it would be nice to have someone else to sign with. I miss it when I’m not home.” She let out a sad sigh, thinking of her family. A buzz of excitement hummed in her chest a moment later at the reminder that they’d just given her the go-ahead to invite Aaron up for Thanksgiving, and that loosened the grip of homesickness. 

“Really? That would be great, actually,” Neil signed back more slowly. He was a little clumsy, but she was impressed at the coordination between his expression and his hands - most beginners didn’t get how important body language and facial expression were. With sudden clarity, Katelyn wondered if Neil’s increase in expressiveness had as much to do with his ASL practice as it did with his increase in comfort around her. 

Either way, she approved, and she let that show in her grin and the tilt of her shoulders as she signed, “Great! Can I have your phone number?” She pulled her phone out of her pocket, and when Neil nodded she pulled up an empty contact and handed it over for him to fill in. Once he handed it back to her she shot him a text so that he had hers as well and slipped it back into her pocket. 

Continuing solely in English, she nodded toward the table where Andrew was waiting, who she now noticed was staring so hard at them she thought she could feel the holes burning into her temple, “Anyway, I’ll let you get back to your studying. Since I’m suddenly free I think I’ll go surprise Aaron.” The second she said it she felt the ache for him like a physical weight in the center of her chest. The need to get to him and feel him in her arms, the strength of his body folded around hers, was a current suddenly urgent to carry her home. 

Some of this must have shown on her face, or maybe she was just really obvious by the way she was already starting to inch toward the door, because Neil didn’t try to hold her back any further. He didn’t even hold her up with a goodbye and just lifted his hand in a wave before turning to go to his own Minyard. 

(Which was a little weird and a little cute, when she thought about it - that she and Neil each had their own Minyard.)

Katelyn had her phone back out and against her ear before she stepped out into the brisk October afternoon, the sun warm but the breeze biting. Aaron answered halfway through the second ring, and the second she heard his voice she was smiling. 

“Kate? Hey baby, what’s up? Don’t you have tutoring today?” His tone was overlaid with a casual lightness that she knew was only there to brush over the gentle concern she could hear beneath the thin mask. 

“Not anymore. Are you free? Maybe we could meet up and do lunch a little early at your place? Or mine, wherever. I just want to see you.” Katelyn was surprised at the emotion in her own voice and she had to stop walking for a moment. When she lifted her free hand, she saw that she was shaking. 

Oh, maybe that whole little altercation had shaken her up more than she’d initially realized. 

Aaron was instantly on full alert. “Yeah, I’m free. I’m at Fox Tower. Do you want me to come get you?”

Katelyn was already walking that way, and she made her feet start moving again - the incentive of Aaron being there waiting for her helping her put a little extra push into each step. “No, no, I’m not far. It’ll only take me a few minutes.”

“Did something happen?”

“Can I tell you when I get there? I’m okay, I promise. It was just… Uh, I don’t really know how to explain it.” Even to her own ears her laugh sounded a little off, a little bewildered. “Let’s just say it’s been a weird fucking day? But also, kinda nerve-wracking? And like, it wasn’t even the whole day. My day was totally normal until about twenty minutes ago and then in the library…” She shook her head and cut herself off. No, she didn’t want to get into the whole thing over the phone. It wasn’t even that it was that big of a _deal_ , except that it sort of was? But not… not exactly in the way she would have thought it’d be if a week ago someone would have told her how this particular Wednesday was going to play out. 

Over the line, she heard Aaron take a slow breath. She could already see him pacing in her mind’s eye and she let herself smile about it, even if she felt a soft chord of guilt, knowing that she was making him worry. 

As soon as she rounded the bend on the path that led up to Fox Tower she saw Aaron waiting for her on the steps and her heart just went ahead and beat out the sun itself for how brightly she could feel its shine. She shoved her phone into her pocket and took off running. Seeing her coming, Aaron jumped down most of the steps and met her partway. Kately dropped her backpack on the path and launched herself at him with absolutely no doubt that he would catch her. 

He did, and it was like coming _home_. 

Her legs wrapped around his waist, his around arms supporting her as she wound her own about his shoulders and held on tight. Her kisses didn’t fly directly to his lips but instead greeted him first on each temple, then on each cheek, then his forehead, before finally sealing over his mouth on a sigh. All the remaining tension from the impromptu carnival of weirdness from the library just _melted_ out of her. She hummed, happy and content, and nuzzled his hair. 

“Mm, much better.”

Aaron chuckled, the sound a deep rumble that made her body heat up in at least three different ways. His lips brushed against her throat and she felt more than heard him say, “I fucking agree.” Then he proceeded to just _hold her_ like she weighed absolutely nothing, like he was content to do nothing else for the rest of the day. 

That warm, happy, giddy feeling did a few somersaults in her stomach again and she hugged him a little tighter before leaning back and shifting so that he could put her down. He did not, and she laughed. “Aaron, you can put me down now.”

“Mm, or - and this is just a suggestion - _or_ I could just, you know, not do that.” As if to demonstrate that he had no problem continuing to carry her, he turned as if to head toward Fox Tower.

“Aaron!” she laughed, squirming slightly in his unbothered hold ( _fuck_ she loved how strong he was). “I have to get my backpack!”

Aaron gave a large, put-upon sigh and reluctantly set her down. The instant she’d retrieved her bag, his arm was around her though, his lips brushing hers before he tugged her toward Fox Tower. 

Once they got up to his room and were cuddled up on the couch together, Katelyn told Aaron all about the situation in the library - from Stephen’s persistence to Andrew and Neil’s interference, to her discovery of how the other two were learning sign language and her own offer to help. Aaron’s initial quiet outrage about Stephen turned into simmering contemplation when she told him about his brother’s arrival. He didn’t seem surprised about them learning ASL, though there was an interesting expression on his face when she told him about Neil’s open acceptance of her offer to help. 

She was tempted to tease him about her and Neil becoming friends, but decided against it - she knew the revelation that his brother had stepped up to defend her was the most weighty thing on his mind right now, especially since he’d be going to meet with his brother for their weekly session in only a couple of hours. Instead, she cuddled him close and breathed in him. She let herself feel warm and safe and happy, reassured and content and perfectly at home.

Katelyn always carried that glow with her. It was impossible not to feel it when she was around Aaron and she knew that it showed. The number of times that he called her ‘sunshine’ was telling enough - but what Aaron didn’t seem to understand was that, if anything, Katelyn was more like the moon. The only reason she was able to shine so brightly was because of the light of love she was blessed enough to reflect out into the world. Aaron? Aaron was her sun.

* * *

The sun was _not_ shining, inside or out, that Friday night when Katelyn found herself in the library at eleven forty-five, frantically attempting to finish a paper she one-hundred percent forgot was due by midnight. She _should_ have been with Aaron, who was going to be in town for the entire weekend because the Foxes were hosting a Halloween party in the large basement of Fox Tower on Saturday. 

Aaron had offered to let her use his laptop when she’d realized it on their way back to his dorm after the game, but she’d pleaded a need for zero distractions and had reluctantly separated from him to do the work in her own dorm instead. Of course, when she got back to said dorm, she’d walked right into a whole _world_ of distraction - as Natalie and several of her sisters had decided to use the Friday night as an excuse to get together, drink wine, and get things ready for their own Saturday celebration. 

(Katelyn would be going to the Foxes party a little bit later after she’d participated in their sunset gathering.)

They’d all giggled and grinned when she showed up and it took a half-panicked _”if I don’t get this paper done I’m going to fail and then I’m going to flunk the semester and then I will never get back on track again and I’m never going to be a doctor and I’m going flunk completely out of MY WHOLE LIFE NINA and LIVE in a BOX in a VERY TRASHY PARK”_ before they all backed off with wide eyes and let her get her things so she could high-tail it to the library. 

Luckily, her future as a box-gremlin haunting trashy parks was put on hold at exactly five minutes to midnight when she submitted her essay to her strictest professor. 

Katelyn sagged in her chair for a full five minutes once it was done, just catching her breath and sending off prayers of thanks to every god out there who may have helped her get her shit together in time to pull through. Once her heart rate had settled back to normal, she pushed exhaustion aside with considerable effort; it was late and she was _tired_ , the adrenaline keeping her going now steadily draining away and leaving her feeling empty and grimy at the bottom of a gutter. She wanted nothing more than a hot shower and some Aaron-cuddles, then about ten hours of sleep. Unfortunately, the Aaron-cuddles were going to have to wait until tomorrow - but she could at least have the hot shower and the sleep to hold her off until then. 

With these thoughts to buoy her, Katelyn slung her bag over her shoulder and wearily dragged herself out of the library with only a limp wave to the student admin on duty at the circulation desk. He gave her a manic smile in return and lifted what had to be his fifteenth espresso of the day, but Katelyn wasn’t one to judge. 

Her exhaustion was smacked out of her as soon as she stepped outside of the library into the chilly October night. They were thickly into autumn now, and while that meant a beautiful display of reds, golds, and oranges during the daytime - the Palmetto campus was downright _creepy_ once the sun went down. There was limited lighting around campus, even on the quad, and what lights _were_ positioned near buildings or here and there along the narrow walkways between buildings and across the quad only served to make the shadows seem deeper and more sinister. October days could still be warm under the glow of the sun, but its absence made winter’s encroaching possession seem imminent and far more forbidding than it should be. 

The wind slashed through her and Katelyn swallowed an incredibly undignified sound as she hugged her coat more tightly around herself and started walking. The faster she got to her dorm, the better. 

She slid her hands into her pockets as she walked, head bowed against the taunting wind. As she walked, she kept a running monologue in her head of all the things she was looking forward to tomorrow - in part to help pass the time, but mostly so that she didn’t notice the way the wind kept rustling the fallen leaves in ways that sounded like footsteps or how the shushing of the bare branches against each other seemed to have the cadence of whispered words. Tomorrow was Halloween to most of the students on PSU’s campus - an excuse to party and get drunk and pig out on sweets, but it had a lot of other names too, from a lot of different cultures. And most of them agreed that it was a time of year when the veil was thin and you didn’t necessarily walk alone through the night. 

Wasn’t that a happy thought?

(Well, actually, it was - if you were being trailed by friendly spirits who just wanted to say ‘hi! missing you!’, but Katelyn was tired and stressed and it was dark and maybe her nerves were in overdrive just a _little_ bit.)

Or, you know, maybe they weren’t spirits at all. Maybe her instincts weren’t off-kilter because of stress or picking up on the more astral aspects of the turning year. Maybe she really _was_ being followed. Katelyn wouldn’t know, because Katelyn was tired and an _idiot_ who really should have just called someone to walk with her when she left the library at midnight. At least, this is was Katelyn’s instant thought when she entered the shadowy walkers’ underpass that led under the main street bisecting campus and would take her the final stretch to her dorm. Why have this realization _now_ and not ten minutes ago when it might have been helpful?

Because now she suddenly found her path blocked by three guys she didn’t know, and none of them looked particularly friendly. 

Katelyn’s step slowed at the sight of them, then she offered a tight smile ( _because this wasn’t a horror movie, Katelyn, get a grip - it’s a Friday night and they’re just being jerk boys taking up space in a dark tunnel so they can be dramatic_ ) and tried to sidestep around them. 

“Hang on, no need to rush away,” the one closest to her said as he stepped neatly in front of her to block her path. “We just wanted to have a little chat is all.”

“Um..? Sorry, I…” Katelyn hesitated, her hand tightening around her phone and wishing that her mace wasn’t in her backpack. It wasn’t very helpful in her backpack, now was it? “I’m just trying to get back to my dorm.” She tried to sound more tired and confused than scared and she _thought_ she pulled it off alright.

“Don’t worry about him, Katelyn. Brian is just being dramatic.” The familiar voice came from directly behind her and Katelyn jumped nearly a foot in the air from how much it startled her. 

She whipped around, mouth dropping open. “Stephen?! What the hell?” Okay, now she was _mad_. Her tired brain maybe fractured a little bit at this reveal, and, okay, maybe she should have taken a moment to think a little bit before responding - but this was just too much. With an angry shrieky growling sound she would later refuse to acknowledge came from her, she swung off her backpack, took two steps toward her former tutoree and hit him as hard as she could with the bag. Then she did it again. And again. 

“What! The! Actual! Fuck! Stephen! Don’t! You! Fucking! Have! A! Life!” She punctuated as many of her words as possible with additional whacks from her backpack, barely hearing his alarmed grunts or the cackling of his friends behind her, until he finally caught the bag and wrenched it from her fingers. That was fine, totally fine. Because now her hands were free and she was able to give him a nice hard _shove_ , and she totally did it without another weird shrieky growl thing. “It’s fucking midnight on a Friday night, and you have fucking nothing better to do than follow me around like a creep!? What!? Because I refused to go on a date with you!? How sad and pathetic can you possibly be!? Just leave me the fuck alone! I--”

SMACK.

The blow hit her so hard across the face that she now understood the phrase ‘seeing stars’ and she stumbled to the side, catching herself on the wall of the tunnel. 

“Jesus! Shit. Crazy little bitch...” When Katelyn caught her breath enough to look over, one hand cradling her cheek, she saw that Stephen was massaging his hand and didn’t look amused. The scuff of shoes on cement had her casting a wary look behind her in time to see two of Stephen’s friends moving closer. She flattened her back to the wall, unwilling to take her eyes off of any of them. 

Katelyn had never known fear like this before. It wasn’t like watching a movie or reading a novel, not even the ones that hit scarily close to home. It wasn’t like the time she’d run a red light her freshman year and almost gotten clipped by that giant black truck. It wasn’t even like that time she’d gotten really high and got caught in an obsessive thought-spiral about the inescapability of death. No, this wasn’t anything like that. 

This was colder.

This was stiller. 

This was a fear that filled her up like she’d eaten too much and had just run a marathon, where she both wanted to throw up and recoiled at the very notion - except instead of a meal she’d swallowed a gallon of ice instead and instead of a marathon she’d just swam a dozen leagues to escape a pod of sharks only to find that the sharks had cornered her in a gully and her blood was in the water. 

She was frozen, from her legs to her throat to her mind. Later she would spend hours, days, weeks thinking and obsessing over everything that could have happened - but in the moment her mind was nothing but a trembling sheet of ice, frosted over and weighed down under the weight of her fear and the nausea of dread that was spreading past her stomach to infect the rest of her. 

“Here I was, gonna be all considerate and shit. Was gonna--”

Katelyn never found out what he was _gonna_ do that was so _considerate_ , because at that moment a small dark blur slammed into him so hard that he went _flying_ in a check so brutal that if it had happened on an exy court a red card would have been flashed before he hit the ground. Two seconds later, Neil Josten was standing in front of her - a human shield who was the exact same height as her and only a shade broader. It was weird to realize so suddenly how small he actually was when she’d been watching him throw himself against people two and three times his size for over a year on the court - but the thing that stuck out to her the most about him, weirdly enough, was that he was wearing a blindingly teal sweatband around his head, keeping his ears protected from the cold; the sweatband was decorated with the most adorable cartoon foxes she had ever seen.

Katelyn wondered at this point if it was possible to go into shock from being slapped.

“I think you’re gonna stay the _fuck_ away from her,” Neil hissed at Stephen and his friends - none of whom were smiling anymore. They paused in their approach at the vicious, murderous venom in his voice, though - and even Katelyn shivered at the tone, it’s potency dragging her back into the realness of the moment. She’d never heard Neil sound like that before. It almost sounded like he was _smiling_ , but his back was to her so she had no way of knowing for sure. A part of her didn’t really want to know. 

“Says who, _you?_ ” laughed the same guy that had stopped Katelyn when she’d first come into the tunnel (Brian?). Stephen had gotten back to his feet and was bleeding from scrapes on his face and hands, his lip was split from the impact as well - and the grossness of the image was nothing compared to the sick hatred in his eyes. 

“Jesus, are you deaf?” Neil asked, feigning incredulity. Then, because he apparently couldn’t help himself, he lifted his hands and with exaggerated slowness spoke and signed: “You. Stay. Away. You. Fucking. Moron.”

A panicked sound caught in Katelyn’s throat - because now was _not_ the time to be provoking these guys!! They were outnumbered, like, massively! She didn’t know if Neil knew how to fight, but her three self-defense classes at the Y the summer after her senior year of high school just did not cover this!

Any hope that this altercation would end with no more violence and just several angsty minutes of boys throwing insults and threats at each other completely shattered with the smug sneer Stephen shot at his friends before two of them lunged forward and attacked Neil. 

Katelyn screamed as they grabbed him, dragging him away from his defensive position and kicking at him when he resisted. It was clear that their intention was to get Neil away from Katelyn so that Stephen could get to her, but Neil was impressively stubborn and skilled at getting out of their grasp. Katelyn didn’t know enough about fighting to actually have an opinion, but by the number of hits Neil was taking she didn’t think he was very good at it - but he also didn’t seem to _care_ , nor did he slow down or give up. Every time one of them grabbed or hit him he got himself right back in front of her somehow. 

“Jesus _fuck_ just take the fucker _down_ already,” Stephen complained the third time his friends failed to drag Neil away from her. “He’s a fucking midget what exactly is so difficult for you guys?”

“Hey, why don’t you get him then?” panted the one that Neil had managed to get a lucky shot at (with his head, Neil literally just slammed his head into his face). 

From his miraculously maintained position in front of her, Neil huffed a laugh and she could _feel_ him smirking even if she couldn’t see his face. “Yeah, Stephen - why don’t you come get me then?” He tilted his head in challenge, taunting him. 

Stephen stepped forward and Katelyn felt herself shrinking back against the wall, sinking down under the oppressive weight of his rage until she mostly crouched behind Neil, cowering, and that anger wasn’t even directed _at_ her this time. 

“Puny little fucking fag like you? You really think I can’t take you?” Stephen spat out the words angrily. He wasn’t yelling, but to Katelyn he might as well have been roaring for the way she felt each word smack into her aching jaw.

Katelyn had never hated herself like this before - but she knew that’s what this sick-like feeling was swimming with the icy fear in her stomach. Neil was standing in front of her, taking hits for her, protecting her, and she couldn’t even open her stupid mouth. All she could do was hide and cower and wish that this wasn’t happening, that it would just _end_. Her face hurt so bad, and with each throb she was reminded of how stupidly helpless she’d been to stop it, how she’d provoked it into happening like a fucking idiot, how even now she wasn’t doing anything. She felt helpless, she felt worthless, she felt _scared_ \- and she didn’t know what to do about it. Even if she had known at one point, what to do in this situation, it was gone now - washed away in the overwhelming of her fear into every single one of her senses, highlighting every nerve. 

“Tch.” Neil made a dismissive sound, then he shifted slightly and outright _laughed_. “God, you’re such a pathetic excuse of a man, aren’t you? Do you have to intimidate, bully, and assault your way into every date you get?” He sighed and shook his head, his stance way too loose for someone who was about to get hurt, way too confident for someone too small to feasibly protect himself, way too relaxed in the face of all that violent rage. 

Semi-deliriously, Katelyn wondered if she was feeling the fear for both of them and that was how Neil was still on his feet like this, fearlessly taunting the men that were probably about two seconds from landing him in a hospital and her…

She couldn’t finish that thought. Her mind shuttered and filled with sharp static instead. 

Then it all shattered and Katelyn screamed as Stephen threw himself at Neil. Her arms came over her head and she screamed again. The sound of fists hitting bodies was too loud, too close, and then…

“KATELYN!”

Her head snapped up, eyes wide, and for the first time she realized she was crying because the wind snapped through the tunnel at the same time that she turned toward the voice, searing the tracks of her tears into her skin with such stinging intent that it might have been considered cruel except for the sight that greeted her; it was _Aaron._

A sob broke in her throat and she tried to launch toward him but her legs were cramped and her balance trashed so she ended up falling awkwardly onto her hands and knees. The ensuing scramble became lost in the scuffle, but one moment she was in a semi-jumbled heap and the next she was springing forward into Aaron’s arms, crying into his chest as they both ended up on their knees. His scent crashed into her senses the same time his arms locked around her, holding her like if he let go he thought she might vanish into thin air. 

The whole world shifted and reeled, then caught up in the tumble of a record scratch and she jerked back suddenly, whipping her head around in alarm. “Neil! We have to--!”

Her mouth dropped open, and with wide eyes she watched as Andrew Minyard wailed on three guys bigger than himself like he was a one-man army. The sight made her cringe and she must have made some sort of sound of distress because Aaron tugged her close again, guiding her to hide her face against his chest. 

The sound of the fight beyond the safety of Aaron’s arms both seemed to last forever and for only an instant - and Katelyn distantly wondered if she’d be hearing those wet, meaty thunks in her nightmares now. She’d never heard someone getting hit like that before. It wasn’t something she was likely to forget. Her face throbbed in reminder and she knew she wouldn’t be forgetting anything about this night for a very long time - and suddenly those gruesomely _solid_ sounds seemed less disturbing and a dark part of herself she wasn’t sure she was comfortable with welled with bubbling satisfaction.

The sounds did stop though - and it was both too soon and not soon enough. They stopped and were replaced with Neil’s voice. 

“Andrew? Drew, hey. Can you help me up? I need you.” His voice sounded calm enough, except it was breathless like he’d just thrown himself into a full half on the court. Katelyn took a slow breath and peeked out from the shelter of Aaron’s arms over to where she could see Neil leaning against the wall only a few feet away from them, one hand curled around his side as he panted like he was trying to catch his breath. Andrew was standing over two groaning bodies on the ground (a quick look around had Katelyn thinking that the other two must have made a run for it, and she only actually remembered seeing three when Andrew showed up to begin with).

Andrew turned and looked at Neil, and a moment later he was standing in front of him. As Katelyn watched, Andrew lifted one hand and cupped Neil’s face with excruciating tenderness. He checked each slowly forming bruise, each cut, then traced a hand down to rest lightly over where Neil’s held onto his side. She didn’t hear him say anything, but Neil said “it’s only bruised” like he’d asked about it. 

“Katelyn?” Aaron’s voice had her catching her own breath and she looked up at him. Tears welled in her eyes again and a sob choked off in her throat when Aaron brought his own hand to her face in almost the exact way she’d just watched Andrew treat Neil. “Oh God, Katelyn.” Aaron’s voice was tight with so many things - rage, pain, regret, sorrow, _relief_ \- and Katelyn didn’t even have to think about it as she responded to it by turning her face into his hand to kiss his palm.

His touch, and the depth of his emotion for her and on her behalf was like an electric current that reanimated her prone consciousness. With a jolt, she could suddenly think again, and she was able to take a deep breath, managing a small, tight smile. 

“I’m okay. I… well, no, no I’m not,” she said truthfully when she heard the thin wobble of her own voice. “But I will be. I just… can we go? I don’t want to be here anymore.”

Aaron nodded. “Yeah. Come on.” With a gentleness only Aaron could possess in tandem with all that strength, Aaron brought her to her feet and tucked her against his side. “Do you want to go back to your dorm or go to Fox Tower?” he asked quietly, and Katelyn knew that he meant the both of them - because she didn’t think either of them wanted to be away from the other right then. 

She thought about it for a moment, then took another breath and made herself stand up straight while still keeping close to Aaron. It felt good to stand, better than she ever remembered it feeling. “Can we go back to Fox Tower?” There would be too many people in her dorm and she just… she wanted to disappear with Aaron for a while. 

“Yeah, of course.” Aaron kissed her shoulder and then he looked over toward where Andrew and Neil were still huddled against the wall. “Hey,” he called, just loud enough to get his brother’s attention. When Andrew looked over at him, he nodded toward the path that would take them toward Fox Tower. “You guys ready to head back?”

Andrew looked to Neil, who nodded and pushed away from the wall. Katelyn saw him try to hide his wince, and she knew if she caught it then Andrew _definitely_ did, but the quieter Minyard didn’t say anything. Katelyn noticed that he did, however, hover right at Neil’s side as the striker moved toward them. Once assembled (Aaron grabbed her backpack and slung it over his own free shoulder), somehow arranged so that she and Neil were in the middle, flanked by the twins, they headed out. 

It was a slow, quiet walk back to Fox Tower - with no one either wanting or willing to talk about anything just yet. Once they arrived, the brothers shared a long look and Katelyn shared one with Neil where she tried and failed to come up with words to say about everything that had just happened. In the end, Neil just smiled at her and lifted his hands, moving with some difficulty as he signed, “Good night.” 

It made her smile, and she signed it back at him before leaning into Aaron and looking up at him. “Baby? Can we go to bed? I just… I want to be done with this tonight.”

“Of course, sunshine,” Aaron murmured quietly, his lips already touching her shoulder and his body already angling them toward his dorm. Andrew and Neil similarly retreated for the night. Katelyn was asleep the second her head hit the pillow, safe and warm where she was snuggled in Aaron’s arms.

* * *

Morning came rolling sluggishly in behind her eyes like a hangover. Her face throbbed and her head ached. Her mouth felt both swollen and cottony-dry. Her whole body ached, but not in any sort of physical pain. She decidedly did _not_ like it. 

Then a puff of breath against the back of her neck and the gentle tightening of an arm around her middle brought her more into awareness and she thought _maybe this isn’t so bad_ because waking up all wrapped in Aaron couldn’t ever be a _bad_ thing. Being more awake also helped her register the low sounds of a tv from the living room and the gentle weight of daylight surrounding them that made her think it wasn’t as early as she’d initially assumed. 

Aaron hummed behind her, and she knew that he was already awake and likely had been for some time (he was always slow and grumbly to wake up - it was adorable). Smiling made her wince at the solid ache in the side of her face, but she did it anyway as she shifted and wiggled to be able to turn onto her other side and face Aaron. She waited until she was in order to open her eyes, just because she liked it when he was the first thing she saw in the morning. 

“Hey,” came Aaron’s soft murmur when he saw her eyes open. His expression shifted from soft to something tighter, something filled with pain and no small bit of anger - but his touch was _achingly_ gentle as he brushed his fingertips over the bruise that had undoubtedly overtaken half of her face. “I’m so sorry Katelyn,” he said tightly, and the emotion in his voice made her want to cry. “Fuck. I should have been there. I should have…” He shook his head and took a slow, shaky breath. “I’m so sorry.”

“Shh, hey, Aaron, baby no.” Katelyn’s voice came out rough and scratchy so she cleared her throat and swallowed a few times in an attempt to construct herself into something less pitiful. She put on the firmest look she could rummage up and cupped her fingers under Aaron’s chin, making him look back up into her eyes. “This isn’t your fault, Aaron. I… I was stupid. I shouldn’t have--”

“No. Don’t. Katelyn, don’t do that. None of what happened was your fault, do you understand me? It is _not_.” There was something so close to desperation in his voice that Katelyn couldn’t have pushed the issue if she’d wanted to. All she could do was take in a short breath and wrap her arms around Aaron, pulling him close, then shifting so that she was on her back on the narrow dorm bed and Aaron could lay with his head on her chest. 

She sifted her fingers through his hair until they both calmed, and then continued for a while longer before she finally spoke again. “Are Andrew and Neil okay? I… Stars, I was so tired last night I didn’t even think about… Neil showed up out of nowhere, and then when you guys got there Andrew took on all of them like that… What even _happened?_ ” She shook her head. The memory from last night was at once painfully clear and horribly muddled, depending on what she was trying to remember, and that didn’t quite sit well with her. 

Aaron kissed her chest and sighed. “You probably don’t want to know,” he said and Katelyn thought she agreed (distantly: the echo of violence befalling meat, and she did _not_ like thinking about a person as _meat_ but it was the only word that came to mind for that _sound_ ). “As for if they’re alright, they seemed more or less fine last night.”

Katelyn nodded and let her mind wander absently for a little bit after that. They laid together in bed until hunger drove them both out, and Katelyn took over the bathroom to humanize herself again while Aaron went to the kitchen to put something together for the both of them. He was still cooking when Katelyn came out of the shower, fresh and feeling considerably more herself - in part from the shower and in part because she’d wrapped herself up in one of Aaron’s hoodies and that always made her feel better. She joined him at the counter, wrapping her arms around his middle and propping her chin on his shoulder, just watching him for a while before she finally spoke. 

“I’m going to head down the hall to see Andrew and Neil,” she said quietly. Aaron stopped what he was doing and turned his head to look at her. She nuzzled his shoulder and sighed. “If Neil hadn’t shown up when he did… How did you two even get there?” she asked suddenly, just now realizing how weirdly coincidental it was that they’d all been able to show up. 

Aaron sighed and went back to where he was chopping vegetables. “Apparently, Neil was out running when he saw you were in trouble. Don’t ask me why he was out running in the middle of the night, he’s a fucking weirdo - but I’m glad he was. He saw and he shot a text to me and Andrew at the same time that just said ‘Katelyn SOS, underpass’. He didn’t respond to anything after that so he must have barrelled in after that. Andrew and I almost ran each other over in the hall and we booked it as fast as we could across campus. If we could’ve taken the Maserati and driven through the damn quad we would have, but the fastest way was just to run.”

Katelyn nodded and nuzzled his shoulder. “I’m glad you did. Seriously I... “ She shook her head. “No, I’m not going to think about it. But… I want to thank them.” After pressing a kiss to his shoulder, then his neck, then his cheek, she pulled away and stepped back. 

“Do you want me to go with you?” Aaron asked, turning to watch her. She thought about asking him if he was worried about her being in the same room as Andrew without him there - but realized that they were all past that by now, especially after last night. 

“No,” she said instead with a small smile. “I won’t be long. I doubt it’ll be a long conversation. But I still want to say thank you, and check in on Neil. He… he took some hits for me.”

Aaron sighed, and finally there was a break in the worry and he seemed closer to normal. “I guess I’m going to _have_ to admit the guy isn’t so bad now, aren’t I?”

The cheeky grin that formed on her own lips made her face hurt, but she ignored the pain in favor of the normalcy. “I guess so. After all, me and Neil are gonna become besties now, just you wait and see.”

The sound of Aaron’s groaned misery buoyed her all the way out the door and down the hall. She was still feeling light as she knocked lightly on the door, though that feeling sank a little bit when Nicky opened the door and gasped at the sight of her face. “Oh my god, Katelyn! I’d heard from Matt, but, shit! I hope Aaron beat the everliving shit out of the assbag that did that to you!”

Katelyn winced, but managed a small smile. “Actually, Andrew did.”

That stopped him cold and he blinked. “Wait, what?”

“You didn’t know? Ah… yeah, Neil sorta came to my rescue last night. Then Andrew and Aaron showed up. Aaron was with me the whole time and Andrew…” she drifted off, because she didn’t really know _what_ Andrew did to those guys. She had no idea how badly they were hurt, or which two got away, or… well, she didn’t know a lot of what happened, and she wasn’t here for answers either. “Anyway… I just wanted to talk to Andrew and Neil. Are they awake?”

Nicky seemed to snap out of it and stepped back to let her in. “Oh! Um, sure. Come on. They should be up. They’re still hanging out in the bedroom but I heard the laptop going with some kind of show or something so you should be safe. Just, um, knock. You know, self-preservation and all that.” He patted her on the head with a grin, then moved away to leave Katelyn to her own devices - for which Katelyn was grateful. She rather liked Nicky. He was sweet and playful and really fun to be around, and she absolutely adored how much he cared about his cousins (even if she knew Aaron sometimes struggled with processing it). He was also a very loud person, and she kinda wanted to do this more quietly, more privately. 

Once Nicky had moved far enough away that she was sure he wasn’t about to follow her, Katelyn made her way to the bedroom. She knocked gently then tried the handle. When the knob turned, proving to be unlocked, she cracked it open and called quietly, “Andrew? Neil? It’s Katelyn… can I come in?”

There was a beat of silence, then Andrew’s voice. “Yes. Shut the door behind you.” His voice was soft, a low murmur, but it carried. When she stepped into the room, pulling the door shut quietly behind her, she saw why he hadn’t spoken any louder.

Nicky had been right that the laptop was on and playing something, but the volume was turned way down - likely so that sudden noises from the show didn’t wake Neil, who was cuddled up against Andrew’s chest where they were laying on the lower bunk of one of the beds. Andrew himself was halfway propped up against the wall with pillows that seemed to have been pilfered from every other bed in addition to the one the two boys were laying in. The laptop was balanced on his legs, but he seemed to be paying more attention to the sleeping boy in his arms than he was to the cooking show that was currently playing. Even when Katelyn entered the room, he only looked up briefly before returning his steady hazel gaze to Neil, his fingers gently stroking through his hair. 

“He only fell asleep a couple hours ago,” Andrew said after a minute, still without looking up at Katelyn. “You’ll have to thank him later.”

“Oh,” she said quietly, unable to tear her eyes away from the two of them. “I mean, of course. He deserves the rest, I just…” Why had Andrew told her to come in at all? Why hadn’t he just said that Neil was sleeping and to go away? Why show her this? Because it had to be deliberate, right? If there was one thing she’d learned about Andrew Minyard, it was that he did _nothing_ without a reason. Did she always agree with his reasons? No, hell no (not even, like, _some_ of the time) - but she was aware they were there and, for him, very _very_ real. 

“I wanted to thank you too,” she finally said - because she’d never figure out Andrew Minyard’s reasons for anything and, really, it wasn’t her place to. “Aaron told me… He said that Neil sent you both a text and you both came running. I just… if you hadn’t shown up…” She shook her head and took a slow breath. “Just… thank you.” She waited a beat, expecting him to scathingly tell her that he hadn’t come for _her_ , that he’d only come running because it was Neil who sent the text and that meant he was in trouble too - but when Andrew finally spoke again, that isn’t what he said. 

For the first time since she entered the room, Andrew looked up from his intense focus on the striker sleeping soundlessly on his chest and fixed her with his weighted stare. It was so _different_ from Aaron’s stare, but in such an eerily similar face that Katelyn caught her breath. She swallowed, and she stopped herself from fidgeting. 

“If he bothers you again, call Aaron. If Aaron doesn’t or can’t answer, call me, call Neil. If all else fails, scream - and keep screaming until someone shows up. Go for his eyes if you can, his balls if they’re closer. Even if he hurts you, even if he promises he won’t hurt you if you shut up - make as much of a fuss as you can.” His voice was perfectly even, still in that quiet almost-murmuring tone that was also smoothly enunciated and almost excruciatingly clear. Not once did he break his gaze away from hers, not until he was done speaking, and only then it was to skim over the bruise on her cheek and then back to her eyes. 

“You should talk to Bee.” He was talking about Betsy, the counselor that he and Aaron saw. Katelyn had met her, of course - she’d even gone to a couple sessions with Aaron in the past few months. 

“Oh I… I’m fine, really, it was just… Nothing happened, and…”

“You were assaulted, Katelyn.” Katelyn froze, from the muscles in her jaw to the tremble in her knees to the breath in her lungs. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the blunt, horrible truth or the fact that Andrew had just used her name - and she wasn’t sure he’d ever done that before. She swallowed, and it was like choking down shards of ice. Tears worked their way into her eyes from the effort and she had to look away from him. 

Unperturbed, Andrew gave her only a moment before continuing. “It doesn’t matter if it was ‘just one hit’. It’s the fear that matters. It’s the fear that will follow you.” He sighed, and the sound was so _tired_ that Katelyn had to look up at him. He wasn’t looking at her anymore. He was looking down at Neil. She noticed that his arms had tightened around the striker. As she watched, Neil shifted a little, his brows tucking inward in a small frown. He shook his head and murmured something, and Andrew adjusted slightly to gently coax the sleeping boy to lay more fully on top of him so he could wrap both his arms more securely around him. Neil settled, and Andrew nuzzled the top of his head before kissing his hair. It was so soft, so tender, so _loving_ that Katelyn felt the tension drain from her own body completely. 

“Okay,” she said quietly, and Andrew’s eyes flicked back to her without the rest of him moving at all. He studied her a moment, then rested his cheek on top of Neil’s head and watched her as she continued to speak. “I’ll call the office on Monday. You’re right, I…” she took a slow breath and exhaled the confession like she was purging some dark and festering thing, and she’d only been carrying it around for around twelve hours “...I’m scared. Still. And… it doesn’t feel like it’s going to go away. Maybe it will. Maybe it won’t. But… it doesn’t mean I can’t or shouldn’t go talk to someone.”

Andrew gave a small enough nod to convey his approval without disturbing Neil. He didn’t say anything else, and after a moment he turned his head enough to be able to focus on the screen of his laptop. It took Katelyn a few moments of silence before she realized she’d been dismissed. She turned and moved to the door, though she paused when she reached it, looking back over her shoulder. 

“Andrew?”

His eyes flicked back toward her in acknowledgement. 

“Thank you.”

That weighted gaze held hers, then turned back to the laptop screen as if she’d said nothing at all, but Katelyn was beginning to understand Andrew Minyard just a little bit more - so she took that for the acceptance it was and left them be. 

Aaron was waiting for her back in his dorm with a lunch of stir-fry, an ice pack, and a bottle of aspirin - and as they ate together and then retreated to the bedroom for a movie and some cuddles of their own Katelyn knew that everything was going to be okay. Even if it wasn’t now, even if _she_ wasn’t now - it would be. She could feel it in her very bones.

**Author's Note:**

> In the second half of the fic, Katelyn is followed in the middle of the night by the guy she turned down and three of his friends. The only violence toward Katelyn is some shoving and a hard slap, but I go really into the state of her fear and everything else she's feeling at the time. There's also some semi-graphic depictions of violence once Andrew & Co. show up and start beating up the bad guys.


End file.
